In five of his conversations, from December 1941 to
the end of July 1942, Hitler made declarations concerning the liquidation of
the Jewish presence in Europe. These were open remarks which were not made as
"State Secrets."

"There were many Jews who were not aware of
the destructive nature of their existence. But he who destroys life exposes
himself to death and as far as they are concerned, that is all that is
happening to them, too."

In November 1941, the Jews of the Reich
were already being deported for extermination into the occupied Soviet regions,
and Heydrich had obtained all of the approvals necessary from Hitler. At that
date he had, in addition, already sent out invitations to the Conference of
Wannsee. Hitler did not conceal from his guests that deportation imperilled
[sic] Jewish lives.

We shall see that in 1942 German public opinion was
swarming with news on the horror of the treatments to which the Jews deported
to the East were submitted. On May 15,1942, Hitler spoke at table of these
reactions (86). After having accused the
German Jews of having given Germany "a knife in the back" at the end of the
First World War, Hitler declared:

"What one calls the bourgeoisie laments
this same Jew, who was then responsible for the knifing, when he is deported to
the East. What should be pointed out in this respect is that at one time this
same bourgeoisie was not concerned by the fact that every year 250,000 to
300,000 Germans emigrated from Germany and that about 75% of the German
refugees going to Australia died during the voyage."

Thus Hitler
called on the people to lament the "75%" mortality rate (a whimsical figure)
among certain groups of German emigrants of former times rather than the
current situation of the Jewish deportees. This was despite the fact that he
had already announced on December 1, 1941, that the Jews risked death.

Two weeks later, on May 29,1941, Hitler approached the Jewish question
in another manner. He left aside the extermination process which was being
carried on. The process was not reconsidered and the guests were already
informed of it. One might say that Hitler brought up the subject as Heydrich
did at the Conference of Wannsee, when he declared that what was done during
the war was only a temporary measure which would allow the acquisition of the
experience necessary to execute the action, the final goal being the
liquidation of the Jewish presence in Europe. Hitler declared
(86):

"That is why within a certain time all of
Western Europe must be totally emptied of the Jews... But one must not deport
the Jews to Siberia for, given their capacity of adaptation to climates, they
will become still much more hardened... It is much better (to deport them) to
Africa to expose them to a climate which harms any man having our force of
resistance."